(11:00 A.M. - 12:00 P.M.)
Review/Commentary
Reviewer: J
Wow, only one review this week? I’m not sure what to do with myself. I am excited to report that the site is appearing in places like this and this. Cool stuff.
As for this fifth hour (already) of Season Four, I’d give it a solid “okay” rating. My biggest gripes are when the show’s plot (any show, really) doesn’t advance very much. In this hour, we certainly saw some things happen, but not nearly enough in my opinion. I know we need to stretch this stuff out over 24 hours, but hey, I’m a demanding viewer.
Anyway, when last we saw Jack he was inexplicably driving along in Kalil’s Lexus, not expecting the police to set up a roadblock. Why is it that Jack can so often predict the next move by a crafty terrorist but he can’t predict basic procedures of the CHP?
Regardless, Driscoll gets a call from the CHP – apparently, Jack did some fast talking and explained that he is working under the authority of CTU (despite having no CTU identification). Driscoll somehow managed to restrain herself from saying “I don’t know who he is – throw his ass in a cell” and backs up his story. I kind of liked this because it showed that no matter how they may disagree, they’re both part of the intelligence agency community and she wasn’t going to let CHP screw with one of her boys.
Soon thereafter, she completely caved in and gave Jack field command, just four hours after their initial meeting about budget issues. I wonder if that’s going to come up again? Like, in a crisis, Driscoll should hold out on him: “Well, Jack, I’d love to radio for backup, but the radios we have are old and have poor range. What say you increase our budget by $15 million so we can buy some new Motorola Talkabouts?”
Anyway, the CHP beam Jack’s car to his location so that he can jump in and tear off in pursuit of Kalil again, who apparently doesn’t drive over the speed limit. Of course, if I were driving a hey-look-at-me, banana-yellow Nissan pickup truck to a secret terrorist location on a deserted road, I don’t really know what I’d do. I do know that Chloe wasted a lot of time with that satellite mumbo jumbo last hour because you don’t need a satellite to see that truck from outer space. Yikes. Nice inconspicuous vehicle, Kalil.
The scene early on in the warehouse with Audrey and Heller was pretty intense, I thought. The acting was excellent, even if it was a little contrived. Heller tries to convince Audrey to strangle him with the chains with which they are bound together. Audrey declines and breaks into tears as her dad nearly commands her to do it, eventually leaning her head on her dad’s neck, in as much of a huglike gesture as one can muster when chained back-to-back. In a surprisingly long scene by 24 standards, Audrey then comes up with a plan to bust a gas pipe in their holding cell so that they can die via the gas leak. Heller objects, but I have to agree with Audrey – it’s not like they’re planning on letting her live anyway. Although my problem with this scene is that Heller went from believing that they would be rescued an hour or so ago to now being resigned to death. I mean, I do understand his thinking and I’d probably be willing to sacrifice my life as well to screw over a terrorist plot – but why the change in attitude from one of confidence to one of total defeat? It just seems incongruous with what we know of Heller so far. But alas, they agree to off themselves, with Audrey using her strong thighs to literally rip off a gas valve with her shackled feet, using the chain holding her shackles together. Oh, how Jack will miss such powerful thighs. Speaking of which, Audrey tells her dad she loves him, which he returns, in a very powerful and simple ending of the scene. Evidently, Audrey has chosen not to tell her dad about her relationship with Jack and instead plans to take it to her grave. Yeah, that’s mature.
Instead, Audrey and Heller inhale large amounts of natural gas for about a half hour, until Omar and his men rescue them. Naturally, they wake right up. At about this time, I’m thinking Omar should have figured out after their escape attempt that he should probably keep them in separate holding cells. He finally does come to this conclusion, which serves more than just the purpose of keeping them from conspiring. It also allows him to play them more against one another, since Heller won’t know what’s been done to his daughter.
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